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Austin, Texas
ABSTRACT
resolution of well logs with the dense aerial coverage of post-stack three-dimensional
seismic data. A systematic field study is presented in this chapter to understand the
procedures that do not make explicit use of three-dimensional seismic data. It is shown
that, by making quantitative use of the post-stack seismic data, geostatistical inversion
considerably reduces the space of stochastic realizations that honor both the well log data
and the spatial semivariograms. Sensitivity analysis also shows that geostatistical
standard geostatistical simulation. Tests of cross-validation against well- log data show
that geostatistical inversion yields additional information over the average trends
that of well logs, and at worst of vertical resolution equal to that of the seismic data at
&
Presently with Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Houston, Texas.
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locations distant from wells. A drawback of geostatistical inversion is the need to convert
well- log data from depth to seismic travel time. Also, geostatistical inversion may be
rendered computationally prohibitive when applied to large seismic/well- log data sets.
INTRODUCTION
and/or extrapolate petrophysical variables between, and/or away from, existing wells.
One of the most attractive properties of geostatistical inference is its ability to integrate
measurements acquired with different degrees of spatial resolution and lateral continuity.
techniques are almost exclusively based on the use of well- log and core data acquired
along existing wells. Seldom do these techniques make use of the three-dimensional (3D)
surface seismic data that is now commonly obtained in the inter-well region. In the best
Recently, a novel geostatistical technique has emerged with the objective of jointly
honoring the wireline data acquired at control wells and the seismic data measured at
every node of the 3D seismic cube (see, for instance, Haas and Dubrule, 1994; Debeye et
al., 1996; and Grijalba-Cuenca et al., 2000). This new technique, referred to as
At the outset of the geostatistical inversion process, the entire seismic cube is populated
collocated simulation. The realizations are subsequently tested against the measured
seismic data before being accepted as final realizations. To perform this test, the
convolved with the seismic wavelet. This convolution yields a numerical simulation of
the post-stack seismic data. A seismic residual (normally a least-squares residual) is then
calculated from the difference between the measured and numerically simulated seismic
traces. Whenever the seismic residual is in agreement with a reduction of the global
seismic residual (i.e., the collective residual that considers all of the traces available in
the 3D seismic cube), the current local realization of acoustic impedance is deemed
acceptable. Otherwise the realization is rejected and replaced with the existing one. A
new node in the 3D seismic cube is then chosen by way of a random walk. An iteration of
the stochastic inversion is complete when all of the nodes in the seismic cube (this
includes lateral spatial location and time) are visited by this local random draw/check
procedure. Subsequent iterations are aimed at reducing the global seismic residual in a
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monotonic fashion. Several iterations are generally needed before the global seismic
residual is brought down to a level consistent with the energy of the noise present in the
seismic data (or else with the energy of the seismic-well tie error). Simulated annealing is
used to reach a local minimum of the global seismic misfit by such a sequence of
iterations.
usually requires large CPU times in order to provide satisfactory results for extensive
Verdin et al. (1999) and Grijalba-Cuenca et al. (2000) have shown that geostatistical
inversion can also be used to increase the vertical resolution of petrophysical variables
porosity in the inter-well region when porosity and acoustic impedance are statistically
related by way of a joint probability density function (PDF)(Pendrel and Val Riel, 1997).
This objective is accomplished by making use of a complete well- log and 3D seismic
data set acquired in an active hydrocarbon reservoir in San Jorge Basin, Argentina.
Figure 2 is a graphical rendering of the seismic and well- log data set used as a test
example in this chapter. There are three vertical wells spaced approximately 900 and 250
m apart. The three wells are located within a segment of a 3D seismic cube comprising an
area of 12 km x 16 km. Only a small portion of 1.3 km x 0.6 km of the complete seismic
cube is shown in Figure 2. Seismic traces are separated at a uniform interval of 25 m, and
a total of 1,225 traces are present in the portion of the seismic cube shown in Figure 2.
One color-coded seismic horizons is shown in Figure 2 to give an indication of the local
structural framework. The coding in colors indicates two-way vertical travel times in
seconds (s) as described in the color legend to the left of Figure 2. Seismic data were
approximately 35 Hz, a lowest frequency of 6 Hz, and a highest frequency of 85 Hz. This
frequency bandwidth places an important constraint on the thickness that can be resolved
at a given depth. For the case at hand, calculations and observations show that the post-
stack 3D seismic data cannot resolve sand bodies thinner than 12 m when buried at a
Structurally, the local geological formations are part of a large extensional basin.
Hydrocarbon reservoirs in this area consist of 1-15 m thick sand bodies of highly
origin. The sedimentary column also exhibits a significant presence of volcanic debris
ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCES
For simplicity, but witho ut sacrifice of generality, the discussion henceforth concentrates
on the relatively simple problem of estimating acoustic impedances between the three
existing wells. The product of bulk density times P-wave velocity, acoustic impedance is
the basic building block of 3D post-stack seismic data. Not only are post-stack seismic
data unable to provide separate values of density and velocity (only of their product), but
they are equally unable to provide values of acoustic impedance in the depth domain
Double vertical travel time is the natural vertical axis of post-stack seismic data, and
hence, for the present purposes, the choice has been made to work exclusively in the
same vertical domain rather than in the more common depth domain. Such a strategy
requires that all of the well- log data be transformed from depth into the seismic double
travel time domain, and this has been done with the aid of existing checkshot data and
transformations are deemed to have excellent quality and have been further checked
against numerical integration of the sonic logs (in turn, the sonic and density logs have
been subjected to a processing step aimed at correcting and reducing the effect of bad
caliper readings).
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Figure 3 is a time-domain cross-section of the well- log acoustic impedance data taken
along a polygon that joins the three existing wells in the area of study. Acoustic
impedances are described with color-coded vertical stripes posted at the exact location of
the three wells. The colors in the scale are encoded as described by the legend shown to
the left of the same figure. Two seismic horizons are indicated with red lines in Figure 3.
One of these horizons is depicted in plan view in Figure 2, and they provide upper and
lower bounds in the time domain for all of the estimation results developed here.
A seismic wavelet has also been estimated from the seismic data via synthetic
seismograms. Independent analyses in the three existent wells yield a consistent seismic
wavelet that can be used across the complete zone of interest. This wavelet is shown in
A first step in the analysis consists of transforming the seismic traces into acoustic
in which the seismic data are devoid of their wavelet signature. Commonly, the inversion
procedure that yields seismic reflectivities. The reflectivities are then transformed into
inverting acoustic impedances directly from seismic data, has proven to be a more robust
and efficient method than standard deconvolution, especially when time-dependent value-
range constraints are enforced during the inversion (Debeye and Van Riel, 1990).
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An incentive for inverting seismic traces into acoustic impedances is that the latter
purportedly no longer bear the arbitrary signature of the seismic wavelet. Because of this,
acoustic impedances will have a natural affinity with actual values of acoustic impedance
gathered along a vertical well, whereas a seismic trace will not. Moreover, the inversion
of seismic traces into acoustic impedances can significantly reduce the so-called tuning
phenomenon otherwise responsible for spurious laterally continuous events in the seismic
data. Figure 5 is a cross-section of acoustic impedance inverted from the seismic data
along a polygon that connects the existing three wells in the area of study (the same
The inversion of seismic traces into acoustic impedances produces a result devoid of low
frequency components. By construction, such low frequency components are not present
in the seismic wavelet (see Figure 4) and therefore cannot be recovered by the inversion.
Low frequency acoustic impedance components are responsible for the compaction trend
(or drift) that causes sonic velocity logs to monotonically increase as a function of depth.
The only way to incorporate this compaction trend in the inversion of acoustic
impedances is to numerically interpolate it (or extrapolate it) from the compaction trends
of sonic logs acquired in existing wells. There is no universally method to perform the
interpolation of compaction trends. One way is, of course, to use ordinary kriging;
another is to use inverse distance weighting. The results shown in Figure 5 are based on a
compaction trend obtained with a simple local weighting scheme that takes into account
the curvature of the upper and lower seismic horizons. This interpolation procedure has
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been successfully checked against the compaction trends of other wells available in the
area of study.
In the cross-section shown in Figure 5, the inverted acoustic impedances exhibit a vertical
resolution of 2 ms (i.e., the same vertical resolution of the seismic data). High values of
acoustic impedance correlate well with the presence of packets or groups of shaly sand
layers, whereas low values of acoustic impedance correlate with shale beds. Note that, the
inverted acoustic impedances shown in Figure 5 have not been obtained by enforcing a
100% match with the well logs at existing well locations, except in their low frequency
components. In fact, the acoustic impedance logs posted in Figure 5 are shown only to
give an indication of the quality of the inversion results. The inversion algorithm simply
incorporates both the estimated seismic wavelet and the seismic data to yield traces of
acoustic impedance. In this case, well logs are used and plotted only to verify that the
inversion results adequately reproduce the data at the existing wells. In what follows, the
simulation algorithms.
approximately 150 ms. In theory there is not a maximum limit to the width of the time
window used for the analysis presented in this work. However, in an effort to minimize
survey area), the choice has been made to concentrate on this rela tively narrow time
window given that (a) it does not exhibit significant compaction effects, (b) it is framed
by well- recognizable upper and lower seismic horizons, and (c) it contains a good
been performed on different upper and lower reservoir zones with approximately
equivalent results. Suffice it to say that there is extensive evidence that both reservoir
properties and geophysical measurements in the zone of interest in Figure 6 exhibit the
log measurements acquired along the three existing wells. Values of well- log acoustic
impedance are obtained by multiplying the velocity and density logs. The best Gaussian
probability density function (PDF) fit to the sample histogram is shown on the same
figure for comparison. In this particular example, well- log data measured along the well
have been resampled with a 1 ms sampling rate (i.e., half the sampling rate of the seismic
data). The well- log data exhibit a sampling rate of 0.5 foot. Hence, in order to facilitate a
cut of 500 Hz) and resample the data at the desired 1 ms sampling rate. The 1 ms
sampling rate represents a good compromise between the vertical resolutions of the
seismic and well- log data. In practice, it is necessary to construct a sample histogram for
every sampling rate (i.e., for every measure of geometrical support) at which the
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than the average separation among existing wells. One tempting way to bridge such a
spatial sampling gap is to construct the histogram making use of acoustic impedances
yielded by trace-based inversion. This would bring the shortest lateral distance between
acoustic impedance samples to the uniform separation of traces in the seismic cube (25 m
in the present case). Strictly speaking, the difference in length of spatial support between
the well- log impedances and the trace-based inverted acoustic impedances invalidates
such a procedure. In light of the lack of adequate spatial sampling in the horizontal plane,
the initial guess for a sample histogram represents a compromise between the histograms
sampled from 1- ms-well logs and 2 ms trace-based inverted acoustic impedances. In like
fashion, a-priori semivariograms are normalized from the sampled histograms and are
estimated from samples of 1-ms well- log and 2- ms trace-based inverted acoustic
impedances. Such histograms and semivariograms are then input to the simulation
posteriori. This process is repeated until a consistent set of lateral and vertical
semivariograms and histograms is produced for the simulations. In the present case, the
final set of semivariograms is in agreement with outcrop data and with well-to-well
correlation studies previously conducted in the same area. Sensitivity analysis has also
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been conducted to determine the effect on the simulations of changing the semivariogram
parameters.
Figure 7 shows the final a-posteriori histogram of 1-ms acoustic impedance overlain by
the corresponding best- fit Gaussian PDF. Final a-posteriori 1- ms acoustic impedance
semivariograms are plotted in Figure 8 for the vertical and horizontal directions. The
same figure describes the number of acoustic impedance samples used to estimate the
instance, Chilès and Delfiner, 1999) and driven by the acoustic impedance logs sampled
at the 3 well sites. The result shown in the cross-section of Figure 9 is the average of 30
independent stochastic simulations. Interpolation of the local PDF’s was performed via
simple kriging and by making use of the modeled semivariograms described in the
previous section. Note that the cross-section of Figure 9 bears a poor resemblance to the
5.
To quantify the agreement of the simulations shown in Figure 9 with the measured post-
stack seismic data, a simple convolution operation is performed using the wavelet shown
simulated acoustic impedances, and then by convolving the latter with the seismic
wavelet. Suc h an operation provides one with a set of synthetic seismic traces. The cross-
correlation between the synthetic seismic traces and the measured seismic traces is then
computed to establish a measure of agreement between the two sets of traces. Results of
this correlation are shown in plan view in Figure 10 for 4 of the 30 independent stochastic
simulations of acoustic impedance. A color scale for the correlation values is shown to
the left of that figure. Quite clearly, the correlation with the seismic data is poor and
inversion by enforcing a global 1% misfit error between the measured and simulated
post-stack seismic data. A total of 10 iterations are used in the simulated annealing
algorithm within geostatistical inversion to produce the desired 1% global seismic misfit.
impedances is not only remarkable, but it also provides slightly more resolution in the
vertical direction. The maps shown in Figures 12 are the result of a correlation analysis of
values are consistently high (higher than 0.9) except for a few locations (the lack of
correlation at such locations remains consistent for all of the 30 simulations and is
perhaps an indication of either amplitude versus offset (AVO) effects, or other biasing
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The 30 independent realizations required for their computation of approximately 36 hours of CPU time on
an Octane SGI (500 MHz) computer
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effects originating during the acquisition and/or processing of the seismic data). The
agreement with the measured seismic data is extremely good, especially when compared
to the poor agreement associated with the sequential Gaussian simulation algorithm.
of iteration. The four panels in that figure are maps of the cross-correlation between the
simulated and the measured seismic data at a given iteration. Cross-correlation maps are
shown corresponding to iterations number one, three, five, and seven, respectively, of the
simulated annealing algorithm used to reach a minimum of the global seismic data misfit.
After five iterations, the simulated annealing algorithm has practically converged to its
final result. Prior to that iteration, the cross-correlation maps evidence significant
discrepancies between the simulated and measured seismic data (the cross-correlation
map for iteration number zero corresponds to one of the panels shown in Figure 10).
ASSESSMENT OF NONUNIQUENESS
Figures 14 and 15 are cross-sections depicting the local standard deviation of acoustic
semivariograms, it is evident that the local variability associated with sequential Gaussian
simulation is much more pronounced than that associated with geostatistical inversion.
analysis are illustrated in Figures 16 and 17. The cross-sections contained in these figures
are obtained by decreasing the range of the semivariograms by 10%; all of the remaining
semivariogram parameters remain constant during the simulations. Figure 16 shows the
results obtained with sequential Gaussian simulation, whereas Figure 17 shows the results
sequential Gaussian simulation, but only a relatively small variation in the realizations
obtained with geostatistical inversion, compared to those described earlier (also see
realizations to honor the seismic data causes relatively low sensitivity to changes in
CROSS-VALIDATION
Several tests of cross-validation have been pursued in an effort to further explore the
shows a plot of acoustic impedance log obtained for the central well in the study using
sequential Gaussian simulation. The result is peculiar because actual data from the central
well were not employed in the simulation process. Figure 18 also shows the actual 1- ms
acoustic impedance log acquired along the central well. The log of acoustic impedance
obtained with sequential Gaussian simulation agrees well with the average tendency of
the actual acoustic impedance log, but it fails to replicate the remaining details. By
contrast, Figure 19 shows the acoustic impedance log obtained with geostatistical
inversion. This plot more closely replicates the details exhibited by the actual log and
Figures 20 and 21 show the complete cross-sections of acoustic impedance obtained with
sequential Gaussian simulation and geostatistical inversion, respectively, without the use
of actual data from the central well. There is a strong visual agreement between the
realizations obtained with geostatistical inversion (Figure 21) and those illustrated in
Figure 11 (the central well data is used to construct Figure 11). Conversely, the lack of
lateral control otherwise exerted by the central well severely impairs the realizations of
acoustic impedance obtained with sequential Gaussian simulation, thereby causing Figure
A simple exercise using well- log acoustic impedances shows that, in general, standard
semivariogram; independent realizations may also exhibit a great deal of variability and
this hinders their power to predict petrophysical parameters away from wells.
On the other hand, geostatistical inversion does honor the seismic data and provides
realizations consistent with both existing well logs and the assumed semivariograms.
Geostatistical inversion also embodies a quantitative means to integrate the high vertical
resolution of well logs with the dense spatial sampling of 3D post-stack seismic data. The
end result of geostatistical inversion is an acoustic impedance cube having slightly better
vertical resolution than the cube of trace-based inverted acoustic impedance, especially in
the immediate vicinity of existing wells. Away from existing wells, geostatistical
inversion yields realizations with an effective vertical resolution equivalent to that of the
seismic data. In addition, the standard deviation of the realizations obtained with
satisfy both the well logs and the seismic data. Because of the same reason, realizations
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obtained with geostatistical inversion are less sensitive to the removal of a well than
the often exorbitant CPU time required to process a cube of 3D seismic data, especially
when realizations are required at time sampling intervals finer than that of the seismic
may also cause deleterious effects on the ensuing realizations of acoustic impedance.
Finally, biases on the estimated seismic wavelet could be responsible for biases in the
porosity, becomes practical only when acoustic impedance bears a clear statistical
correlation with that parameter. Such a correlation may also exist through a lithology
petrophysical parameters
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their deepest appreciation to Repsol-YPF for providing
the comprehensive data set used to construct the field examples described in this chapter.
A note of special gratitude goes to Baker Atlas, Halliburton, and Schlumberger, sponsors
Austin, for their partial funding of this work. Thanks are extended to Jason Geosystems
for a generous donation of its complete line of software to The University of Texas at
Austin, and used to perform the work described in this chapter. Dr. Sagar Ronghe and
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two anonymous reviewers provided valuable constructive criticisms to improve the first
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